W ESLEYAN H ERITAGE Library
Holiness Writers
REVIVAL KINDLINGS
By
Martin Wells Knapp
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” Heb 12:14
Spreading Scriptural Holiness to the World
Wesleyan Heritage Publications
© 1998
REVIVAL KINDLINGS
By
Martin Wells Knapp
Editor of The Revivalist Author of
Christ Crowned Within Out Of Egypt Into Canaan
Revival Tornadoes
"I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?"
— Jesus — God's Revivalist Office,
Mount of Blessings, Cincinnati, O.
Copyrighted
By Martin Wells Knapp 1890
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp DEDICATION
Unto The Triune God,
Whose Love Is "A Genial Fire";
Whose Glory Is "A Devouring Fire";
Who Is To His People "A Refiner's Fire";
Who Is To The Persistently Impenitent
"A Consuming Fire"; And Who Is Seeking To Kindle On Earth
"Revival Fire";
And Unto His Church,
Which He Has Promised To "Baptize With
"Fire From Above,"
This Volume Is Humbly Dedicated By Its Author.
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp PREFACE
He who has promised that "as thy days so thy strength shall be," has permitted the writer, who for some time has been unable to do heavier work, to prepare this book of "revival kindlings."
Its object is to help meet the need mentioned by Rev. B. E. Paddock, an evangelistic pastor, who writes as follows: "Such a volume, filled with facts unvarnished, clothed in appropriate language, so that the strong points are brought out, will be of inestimable value. I have greatly felt the need of such a work all through the years of my ministry. Have felt it more of late than ever before. After doing my best to forcibly present a Bible truth and make a point, I want an incident to clinch it. Such a work, well written, well arranged, and full, would be instrumental, when combined with other agencies, in bringing thousands to Christ."
The writer confidently believes that this volume will help to meet this need. He has used much of the matter in his own work, and thus tested its kindling power. The book is designed to be an arsenal, from which the Christian soldier can draw needed illustrative supplies; a well, from which the patient toiler in the Master's vineyard can drink and be refreshed; and a guide, pointing away from superficial and spurious revivals to those which are true. It is also hoped that its "kindlings"
may so ignite that it will prove a fire by whose heat unconverted readers may be melted and shivering professors so warmed that, with hearts burning within them, they will sing no more of
"These cold" hearts of ours.
Its multiplicity of pointed salvation incidents is designed to make it a book of great value for workers to read themselves and scatter among those whose salvation they seek, as well as a book from which to draw material for public use. It is also well calculated to supplement the other books which the writer has issued.
In "Christ Crowned Within," gospel truth is presented from an experimental standpoint; in "Out of Egypt into Canaan," from an illustrative; in "Revival Tornadoes," from a biographical; and in
"Revival Kindlings," chiefly from an anecdotal.
God has condescended to use each of our other books in leading precious souls to Christ, and in the cleansing of His children and in their enduement with "power from on high." If a like or greater blessing attends this one, all the glory shall be His. Much of the matter in it has appeared from time to time in The Revivalist, and has been thought worthy to be arranged and put in this more permanent form. Some has been selected from other books, but much of it appears in book form for the first time. All the articles not otherwise indicated are by the author of the book. We sincerely thank all who have aided us in gathering material for these pages; and also earnestly desire the
prayers of all who read them, that the book may be used of God to accomplish the end for which it is written, and thus help to hasten the day
"When not one rebel heart remains But over all the Saviour reigns."
May He who only is able to make "weak things" "confound the mighty," and the "things that are not" "bring to naught the things that are," breathe, by His Spirit, upon these "kindlings," and fan them into a flame for His glory.
— M. W Knapp —
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Kindlings
2 Revival Fire
3 Revivals
4
Revival Preparation 5
Revival Prayer 6
Revival Workers 7
Revival Methods 8
Revival Results 9
Jonahs 10 Infidelity
11
Death Scenes of The Saved 12
Death Scenes of The Unsaved 13
Peril of Procrastinating
14 Getting Saved
15 Getting Saved
16
Receiving The Holy Ghost
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp Section 1 KINDLINGS
"Revive us again, fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be enkindled with fire from above!"
"Kindlings," according to Webster, "are the material used for causing flame or kindling a fire."
That they may fittingly be mentioned as illustrative of facts and incidents such as are embodied in this book will be seen by a glance at a few of the points of resemblance.
The human heart is the furnace; spiritual truth the fuel; prayer the match; the Holy Spirit the fire from it; illustrative facts, anecdotes, and incidents, the kindlings; the Christian worker the fire builder. Jesus, with the Father, is the proprietor and director.
The souls of men in their sinful state are in a sad condition. They were designed to be temples infinitely grander than Solomon's, in which God Himself should dwell. Men by sin let Satan in, who put out the fire, extinguished the light, and made it the abode of those who, like himself, prefer darkness and spiritual desolation.
A divine law demands that all such despoiled structures shall be destroyed at once; but Love pleaded that man might be an exception to that statute, and an opportunity given where he might through the divine favor, be restored to even more than his former state.
The Son of God has made this possible, provided agencies to do it; and Himself gives them all, when used as He directs, divine energy. He has declared that "He came to kindle a fire on earth," and asks, "What will I if it be already kindled?" His "word is like a fire," and His mission is to kindle a flame of holy love that shall belt this globe, burn up the dross of sin, and fit every soul temple for His own indwelling.
To do this work He has not chosen many agencies that are "great and mighty" in the sight of men, but those which are "weak" and often "foolish" in man's perverted sight. In many instances a simple word or tear or metaphor or illustrative incident has done more to kindle a fire in a cold heart than a whole ton of the cold coal of logical argument would have done. These prove spiritual kindlings the counterpart of those in the material world. Notice the correspondences, and learn thereby to wisely use such "kindlings."
Material kindlings are a great help in building a fire.
Fuel will not burn readily by the striking of a match, without kindlings of some kind. The furnace may be full of fuel, but will be fireless unless kindlings are procured.
Every enlightened mind contains truth enough to save it. Every cold church holds truth enough to make it glow with holy fire if only that truth were ablaze.
The great mission of revivals is to set this truth on fire. To aid in doing this, illustrative;
"kindlings" are of great value.
Jesus gathered such both from the history of the past and the events of the present, and then used them with a wisdom which should command both the admiration and the example of all who preach and teach His gospel.
Kindlings, though needful cannot be substituted for the more substantial fuel.
A fire made of kindlings only will both flash up and go out quickly. No more can "revival kindlings" be substituted instead of the great body of Bible truth, which it is their mission simply to illustrate and enforce.
Kindlings have to be prepared and possessed before they can be used.
There might be an abundance of material for kindlings at hand, and yet all of it be valueless for kindling purposes, because not prepared or possessed. So with spiritual kindlings for use in revival work. The world is full of material for them, but much of it is not in shape for use; and often even that which is prepared is not in possession of the gospel worker, and hence to him is valueless.
Kindlings not only should be prepared and possessed, but also of easy access.
Many an itinerant, taking his "Brush College" course, has felt the discomfort caused by waiting while his host, whose hospitalities he shares after the evening revival service is over, is hunting up kindlings and preparing them for building a fire. How much needless shivering would have been saved if only the kindlings had been prepared beforehand!
Such an host is a picture of the preacher who "beats the air" or "shouts at the stars" in his sermons and personal instructions because he has neglected to prepare and have easy of access a supply of fitting illustrations.
How often congregations have shivered spiritually under sermons that have "gone out" just because the minister had neglected to secure needed "kindlings," or was too "dignified" to condescend to use them
Kindlings must be placed in the furnace and brought in contact with the fuel.
In a similar way, "revival kindlings" of fitting illustrative truth must be brought in contact with the minds of those whom it is hoped to enkindle.
The furnace must be properly prepared.
The ashes should be removed, the pipes and chimney cleaned, and the dampers opened.
Some people are like an old furnace with rusted damper shut, pipes and chimney completely filled with soot. Pride, prejudice, unbelief, an unforgiving spirit, worldliness, and kindred evils, are the soot which hinders, and if not removed will smother revival fires. On this account the first two weeks of a revival frequently must be spent in cleaning spiritual pipes and chimneys. On such occasion the leader of the revival must be a spiritual "chimney sweep" or see every effort to build revival fire fail.
Blind professors sometimes insist that the minister shall light his "kindlings" and make the revival fire burn, with the church in the deplorable condition mentioned, without urging its overhauling and cleaning.
If wise he will inflexibly resist such insistence; otherwise his time and labor will be in vain; his revival end in smoke, and the blind men mentioned will say, "is not much of a revivalist," and perhaps it will be true.
Kindlings to accomplish their mission must be lighted.
The furnace, pipes, chimney, fuel, and kindlings-all may be properly prepared and ready for a rousing fire; yet if not lighted, frowning Frost, instead of genial Warmth, will reign.
All now hinges on striking and applying the match. What the match's fire is to the kindlings, the Holy Spirit is to revival facts and incidents. They can be lighted from no other source. Mental, moral, or mere rhetorical fire cannot ignite them. They are to help kindle flames which will glow forever, and their source must be divine. Hence a revival or a church that ignores the agency of the Holy Ghost can at the best be but a spiritual icehouse. It may have many in it, but they will be in a freezing condition. They may listen to artistic music and archangel eloquence which may amuse for a moment. They may dance, play progressive euchre, engage in churchly frolics, festivals, theatricals, and kindred "entertainments" to try and thus "amuse themselves" and forget the spiritual chills which blight their brightest hopes; yet sooner or later, unless fire from above shall fall amid the resistless blasts of a merciless spiritual winter, they will have perished, and over them the unseen angel will be compelled to write this sad and truthful epitaph: "Frozen To Death."
The right use of kindlings requires wisdom.
It requires wisdom that will insist on the overhauling of soot-filled pipes, the sweeping of chimneys open dampers, and which, when all is ready, shall apply the match.
Success with spiritual kindlings needs the higher wisdom from above, — wisdom that will use them discriminately; wisdom that knows how, Elijah-like, when all is ready, at just the right time, to strike the match of prevailing prayer, which will bring the fire of the Holy Spirit from above to set ablaze the kindlings which have been prepared.
A little girl tried to build her first fire by laying a match on the top of a stick of wood. It of course went out and she was disappointed. Workers who dispense with spiritual kindlings altogether, or who use them at hap-hazard, at wrong times and places and to wrong persons, are as unwise as was this little girl, and must meet a similar mortification.
The Christian worker who cannot strike this match is as out of place as a revival leader as a baby would be to lead in a battle. Such should seek at once some Pentecostal "upper chamber" and "tarry there" until this secret wisdom, which the Father delights to give even to spiritual babes, is possessed. Then, and not till then, other conditions being met, shall come the qualification to lead on to revival victory.
FIRE IN THE WORD
"And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel" (Exod. 24:17).
"And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day" (Isa. 10:17).
"Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire" (Isa. 30:27).
"I will make my words in thy mouth fire" (Jer. 5:14).
"Is not my word like as a fire" (Jer. 23:29)?
"He is like a refiner's fire" (Mal. 3:2).
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" (Matt. 3:11).
"I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled" (Luke 12:49)?
"Who maketh his . . . ministers a flame of fire" (Heb. 1:7).
"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them" (Acts 2:3).
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp Section 2 REVIVAL FIRE
Fire, as well as "kindlings," has its counterpart in the spiritual world.
Revival fire is gospel truth ablaze with the power and presence of the Holy Ghost. It glows in the hearts of all who welcome it.
A freezing family in a fireless dwelling, with the mercury forty degrees below zero, is a no more pitiable spectacle than a soul or a church which is destitute of revival fire.
Notice the following instructive likenesses between it and the fire of the material world:—
A Fire Will Not Burn Without Fuel
No more can fire divine be kindled in a heart that is destitute of the fuel of God's truth.
The truth must first be placed within before the fire can be built there. This work may be done in the home, in the Sunday school, from the pulpit, by personal instruction, and by the printed page.
A few sticks or coals are enough to begin the fire with, but they must be there. Many of the heathen are entirely destitute of these, and the truth has to be translated into their language before it can be set on fire.
To simply pray for the conversion of those who have no knowledge of the gospel, without doing anything to put them in possession of proper instruction, is as foolish as to try and build a fire in a fuelless stove.
A Fire Will Not Burn Unless It Is Kindled
No more will revival fires burn unless man does his part to build them. Whenever there has been a Saul suddenly blazing up with a revival fire, there has also been some Stephen who has helped to kindle the flame. Revivals do not come independent of human effort. They must come from above, and are of divine origin, but their coming is conditioned on human action.
A man would be thought crazy if he should pray for God to keep his family from freezing, and then refuse to light a fire, on the plea that God Himself would do it "in His own good time." Yet he would act just as wisely as one who prays for a revival in his own heart or community, and then does nothing to promote it.
A Fire When Kindled, Exerts A Twofold Action
Fire in one instance will warm, and in another, burn: in one, comfort; and another, pain the effect depending upon the attitude of the subject toward it. So with fire from above. Falling upon Ananias, persistent in perfidy, it burns him to death: but in the heart furnace of an Isaiah, a Peter, or a Paul, it glows a perpetual glory. It troubles the sinner, but comforts the saint. Spiritual fire rejected is hell;
received, it is heaven.
Fire Is Destructive
Spiritual fire is a foe to sin, and seeks to destroy it: hence the ingenious and persistent efforts of Satan and his servants to put it out; hence the wisdom from above, which is needed to bring their efforts to naught.
Fire Is Aggressive
It swiftly spreads. So does fire from above. Within fifty years from the first Pentecostal conflagration it nearly belted the globe. Within the last century it has spread with a rapidity that has made the "gates of hell" to shake; and within the next twenty-five years it will burn in every corner of this globe, making it glow with a beauty borrowed from celestial realms.
Fire Shines
So does its spiritual namesake; and shining, it makes wonderful revelations of divine truth. It reveals views of God and sin and self, that startle by their awfulness. The prayer, "Lord, let the fire fall!" should be prefaced with, "Lord, help me to bear the revelations that it will bring."
It Melts
Hard metal under its influence becomes soft and pliable. Under the influence of fire from on high the will bends, the heart melts, the feelings flow, and, as a dear minister expressed it, "all stiffness disappears."
Fire Is A Great Purifier
In the furnace it separates the base from the precious metal, and prepares the pure gold for the impress of the government seal. Likewise, in God's alembic, this fire divine separates from our natures the dross of sin, and fits the purified soul for the impress of the government divine, so that by complete submission to His will it is molded to "awake in His likeness."
It Condenses
This thought is not poetical, but wonderfully practical and true. As the juices of the cane and of the maple must be submitted to the fire's purifying, condensing power before they are of value, so must the soul to fire from above. Pride, envy, self-will, and kindred gaseous vapors must be expelled,
and the condensing process continued until one shall feel, "I am nothing, but Christ is all in all." "I feel awfully small," said a brother who had just passed through this process. It was the smallness that precedes greatness. When we are little in our sight, we become great in God's sight. There is danger in being too big. It was the death of Goliath, and came near being the defeat of Gideon's army. Fire condenses. When it gets burning among a people, how amazingly the old prayers and exhortations and experiences contract.
It Also Expands
It condenses sap, but expands metal. So with fire from above: it condenses the redundant and expands the precious. Beneath its heat, peace, joy, benevolence, and all the precious metals of spiritual mineralogy are wonderfully expanded. Under its influence one man witnessed, "I don't dare stay to another meeting, for I am as full now as I can stand." It was the expansive power of fire divine that "filled" him.
Fire Inspires Growth
Warmth and light are its children, and under their genial influence there is the seed, the plant, the flower, and the fruitage. Without it, everything freezes to death. So in the spiritual world. With it, all the seeds implanted by the Spirit in the soul germinate, and develop into flowers and trees which glorify their Maker here, and then are fitted for transplanting to brighter realms above. Without it, all are soon nipped by frosts of worldliness and frozen to death in the ice of formality, or are destroyed by the terrific blizzards that continually rage in the perpetual winter of sin To look for spiritual growth without fire from above is just as absurd as to expect to raise oranges in the Arctic Zone.
Fire Is The Main-spring Of The Tornado's Night
Its heat creates the mighty aerial currents which have formed "cyclones" that have swept over earth with tremendous momentum. So of spiritual fire are born "revival tornadoes" such as have shaken earth and made the very gates of hell tremble. Behold their history in the days of the early Church, of Luther, of Wesley, and at the present time! They are God's purifiers of the moral atmosphere, sent to banish the soul-destroying malaria that arises from the swamp of sin on earth and the pit of hell below. May they multiply until the sweet and holy atmosphere of heaven pervades this entire planet.
Fire Is An Explosive Of Dynamite
Under every form of evil the messengers of the Almighty are placing the dynamite bomb-shells of eternal truth. As they pray, the Spirit descends, the fire flashes from above, and there are and shall be explosions, shaking the very dungeons of doom, and making demons turn pale with hopeless rage.
Fire Is The Center Of The Earthquake's Power
It speaks the word, and from its presence legions of pent-up gases rush against earth's crust with a fury that makes mountains reel and cities totter to the dust.
Revival fire creates spiritual earthquakes of similar might, — earthquakes which shall continue to convulse and startle the moral and the spiritual world until Greed and Lust and War and False Ambition, with all their kindred have been destroyed, and the temples they have reared and the shrines where they have worshipped be deserted or thrown down.
Fire Is The Source Of The Refreshing Shower
The heat which it sheds forth so affects the atmosphere as to create the shining dew, the morning mist, and the refreshing shower. In a similar way the same spiritual heat, of which is born the cyclone and the earthquake, also creates the dew of silent, sweet devotion, the . . . morning clouds of praise which ascend from hearts, and also the "showers of blessings" which daily water all the trees and flowers of "righteousness" which flourish in the garden of the Lord.
The Results Of Fire Are Wonderfully Diverse
It is the final source of both the lightning's gleam and of the rainbow's tint. In a like manner, fire from above may be the origin of judgments sudden and awful, that appall by their vividness; and also of graces sweet and winning, that entrance with more than earthly loveliness.
Fire Is A Source Of Motion
It generates steam, without which many of our most important machines would be useless.
It is said that the first time that a northern pitman ever saw a locomotive, he said, "How is it to go? There are no horses, and it is tons of weight. It will never move."
Soon it was going at full speed, when the same man, filled with wonder, declared, It Will Never Stop
Seeing another train, he decided to discover the secret of its motion. He finally found it out, and said to his companion, — "Why, Jim, it's the fire that's inside her!"
A perfect engine upon a perfect track, well manned, and supplied with coal and water and all else needful, would still be perfectly powerless for the end designed, without fire. Sermons are sometimes just like such an engine. So are songs and prayers and testimonies and exhortations. The parties producing them would laugh at an engineer that would get down and push on his engine to make it go instead of "firing up." Yet they are doing a similar thing. Some are preachers, some superintendents, some class-leaders, some stewards, some trustees, some parents, and each has a splendid engine well equipped, and a train loaded with a precious freight of immortal souls which
he wishes to get safe to heaven. There is fretting and worrying, and blaming and desponding, and pushing the train, but it doesn't move. Get on board, let the fire fall, and like a thing of life you and your precious freight will ascend the up-grade to the skies.
It Warms Our Homes
So with fire from high: it melts the hearts of parents and children, and they flow together. All
"coldness" towards each other disappears when it is received by each. A home without it is like a dwelling beautiful and nicely furnished, yet fireless. Who would live in such a house? Yet it were not half so foolish to do that as to have a home without fire from above. No wonder that multitudes have said, "I'll have it or die." No wonder that to all such the kingly Christ replies, "Ask, and ye shall receive."
"Oh that it flow from heaven might fall, And all Our Sins consume Come Holy Ghost for Thee we call!
Spirit of burning, come!"
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp Section 3 REVIVALS
A Revival
Is like a thunder cloud, in that lightning leaps from it and sometimes hits to kill.
Like the sunshine, in that it sheds light and banishes darkness.
Like a hammer, in that it breaks chains and frees their victims.
Like the weather, in that it is outrageously grumbled about and cannot please all.
Like the moon; no matter how much the dogs of opposition bark at it, it moves right on.
Like a war, in that there are always two sides, and the lines are closely drawn.
Like the earth, in that it is created and upheld by an unseen power.
Like the Day of Judgment, in that both judgments and rewards attend it.
Like a charge in a battle, in that the true and the brave press to the front, while the untrue and the cowardly fly to the rear.
Like a forest fire, in that when it gets under headway it spreads rapidly and destroys all dead material.
Like all other great blessings, in that all glory for the good it brings should be given to God alone.
A Revival Spirit
In a church makes it like a magnet, in that it draws people to itself.
Like an oasis in the desert, in that it affords to the perishing, spiritual shade, food, and drink.
Like a strong ship, in that it is able to triumph over both wind and waves.
Like an impregnable fortress, which defends its inmates and is a terror to their enemies.
Vivifying, enlightening, and purifying, it is like the sun when it goeth forth in its might; and like heaven, in that its subjects are both useful and happy, and God Himself dwells with them.
A Church
Which is destitute of a revival spirit is like a storm-cloud in the time of a drought, which brings no rain.
Like a lamp with a wet wick, which sputters for a moment and then goes out.
Like a stove with soot-filled pipes and wet wood, that gives no heat.
Like an empty table to a man who is starving. Like a dried up fountain to a man that is dying of thirst.
Like a lighthouse whose light is put out.
Like a home where there is no love.
Like a Polar winter.
Like a ghastly corpse.
He who commanded "Come forth" to Lazarus, is able to resurrect even such a church as this.
Absolute Necessity Of Revivals
"I could prove to a demonstration that without revivals the world will never be converted, and that in a hundred or two hundred years, without revivals, Christianity will be practically extinct. It is a matter of astounding arithmetic. In each of our modern generations there are at least thirty-two million children. Now add thirty-two millions to the world's population, and then have only one or two hundred thousand converted every year, and how long before the world will be saved? Never
— Absolutely never!" — Talmage
Motives For Revival Effort 1. God commands it.
2. He always abundantly blesses all who rightly engage in it.
3. The great majority of converted people were saved through revival efforts.
4. Sinners by the million are sinking down to an eternal hell.
5. Sin is an insult to God.
6. Revivals make joy in heaven.
7. Formalists, hypocrites, saloonists, and the devil, all hate them.
8. Spiritual people in all denominations bid them God speed.
9. To refuse to aid in them is to become cold, dead, and perhaps lost forever.
10. To work in them is to win soul gems that will be of infinite value when banks have all broken, and all but God's saints have gone into eternal bankruptcy.
"Long and loud the Master calleth, Rich reward He offers thee.
Who will answer, gladly saying, 'Here am I send me, send me.'"
There Must Be A Revival
It is possible for a person to live and be happy without a home, and in poverty and hunger; but if destitute of a revival spirit he is a spiritual invalid, weak, sick, and miserable, if not already dead.
It is possible for a church to thrive without a building, without a choir, without a preacher, but without a revival it is like a house in the winter without any fire.
Towering mountain high, above all other needs, educational, political, or financial, is the need of a revival to all who are destitute of its power. Let the voice of each church and individual unite with the voice of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the cry for a sin-consuming, heart-cleansing, soul-filling revival of religion.
Revival Catechism What is a revival of religion?
It is such a cleansing and quickening of believers as leads to the conversion of sinners.
Why do some church members oppose revivals?
For various reasons. Some because they are unconverted, others because they have been prejudiced against true revivals, by their knowledge of spurious ones, and others still because they are holding on to some sin which they feel sure that they would be pressed to give up should there be a genuine revival, and others still because they are not willing to make the sacrifice upon which the coming of a revival is conditioned.
What are the conditions upon the meeting of which a revival may be expected?
Prayer, faith, and personal work on the part of those pleading for it.
Why is it that so many prayers for revivals are not granted?
Because they are not offered with pure motives from pure hearts. God says, "If a man regard iniquity in his heart the Lord will not hear him." A prominent and successful soul saver has told of an official member who sought a baptism of revival power. He did not receive it. He inquired of a wise man what the reason could be. Was asked his motive in thus praying. Answered, that he might be happy. Was told that the devils in hell might pray with as pure a motive as that. He went away enraged, but soon came back with the glad tidings that when he began seeking it not that he might be happy, but that he might win souls, the baptism came. Selfish prayers fall back to the earth like lead.
Revivals Or A Winding Up
Three hundred thousand divorces in this country the last twenty years! Then you say there isn't any need of revivals and outpourings of the Holy Spirit. If our nation rushes on in sin as it is going now, I do not wonder the Adventist says the world is coming to an end shortly. If the brakes are not put on, and there are not general revivals in the cities, and a much deeper work of grace upon the hearts of God's people, and they turn to the Lord, there will be a winding up of all things here. — Rev. Joseph Cook
Revival Opposition
He who opposes scriptural revivals, or any other divine movement, is like a man who would stop and knock his head against the corner-stone of a big church every time he passed it. The church could stand it all right, but it would be hard on the poor man's head.
Some by opposing holiness and resisting revivals have acted thus foolishly. The holiness temple still stands in all its stately grandeur, and revivals sweep on like a resistless Niagara, but the "heads"
of opposers are in a sad condition.
Such should be pitied and prayed for. Many already have seen their folly and fully yielded both hands and hearts to Him against whom in "ignorance and unbelief" they sinned.
Revivals A Remedy For Divisions In The Church
"Go, and I will be with you and give you success," was the substance of the message that God gave me as I decided in response to Pastor S's invitation to conduct revival services with him.
I soon found that Satan had things there about to suit him.
At the last two meetings many of the members had withdrawn from the church, and very few had favored the pastor's return that year.
Only a few came to the meetings at first, but God heard prayer, blessed our labors, and soon the work revived. It shortly reached the disaffected members. What tears of penitence! What mutual forgivenesses.
"If you are willing to take me into the church again, I'll come back on probation," said one in public; and nearly all who had withdrawn felt the same way, and came back into the church.
Nothing so unites people as receiving the Spirit, which makes all one in Christ Jesus.
Revivals A Sure Cure
For spiritual colds. Many people have foolishly exposed themselves in the damp, foggy lowlands of disobedience, or amid the blizzards that are continually raging on the bleak hill-tops of unbelief, which brings a spiritual cold that causes wrong views of Jesus and His work. Sometimes it effects the heart, so that there is little or no charity for others. This condition is often attended by a high fever of variance, strife, and contentions, in which the patients become so spiritually delirious that they harbor hard feelings toward others, and do not forgive others as they want God to forgive them.
Sometimes it settles on the lungs in such a way that it is very difficult to speak or pray, and it often causes spiritual respiration to cease altogether, ending in spiritual death.
A genuine revival will banish the cold and bring the dead to life. Glory to God!
Revival Excitement
There are two ways of destroying icebergs. One is to pound them to pieces, and the other is to melt them. The latter method is thus described by Talmage, in "The Boy Preacher."
"Did you ever hear that there was a convention once held among the icebergs in the Arctic? It seems that the summer was coming on, and the sun was getting hotter and hotter, and there was danger that the whole ice-field would break up and flow away; so the tallest and the coldest and the broadest of all the icebergs, the very king of the Arctics, stood at the head of the convention, and with a gavel smote on the table of ice, calling the convention to order. But the sun kept growing in intensity of heat, and the south wind blew stronger and stronger, and soon the ice-fields began to grind up, iceberg against iceberg, and to flow away. The first resolution passed by the convention was, "Resolved, That we abolish the sun." But the sun would not be abolished. The heat of the sun grew greater and greater, until after a while the very king of the icebergs began to perspire under the glow, and the smaller icebergs fell over, and the cry was, "Too much excitement! Order! Order!"
Then the whole body, the whole field of ice, began to flow out, and a thousand voices began to ask,
"Where are we going now? Where are we floating to? We will all break to pieces." By this time the icebergs had reached the Gulf Stream, and melted into the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean. The warm sun is the eternal Spirit; the icebergs are frigid Christians; the warm Gulf Stream is a great revival.
The ocean into which everything melted is the great, wide heart of the pardoning and sympathizing God."
Judges And Lawyers Convinced
I have always found that when the gospel was properly presented, they were the most accessible class of men. I have never to my recollection seen a case in which judges were not convinced of the truth of the gospel, where they have attended meetings in the revivals I have witnessed. I have often been very much affected in conversation with members of the legal profession by the manner in which they would consent to propositions to which persons of ill-disciplined minds would have objected. — From Finney's Autobiography.
True And Sham Revivals True revivals are born from above.
Sham revivals, from below.
True revivals proclaim the whole gospel.
Sham revivals skip the terrors of the law, the doom of the damned, the depravity of the soul, assurance of conversion, and the claims of heart holiness, and substitute instead a sickly sentimentalism.
True revivals proclaim the truth fearlessly, no matter whom it hits.
Sham revivals, for fear of Esquire Consequence, or Trustee Hypocrisy, either touch very lightly, or else let entirely alone, any needed truths that would offend them.
True revivals not only command men to repent, but teach them what to repent of.
Sham revivals are silent on the subject of repentance for fear of hurting men's feelings.
True revivals urge their children not to rest until they know they are converted.
Sham revivals take it for granted that men are saved because they weep or come forward or rise for prayers.
True revivals are deeply concerned over the quality of conversions.
Sham revivals, over counting the so-called converts. True revivals change the nature, and not only get their converts into the Church, but register them in the "Book of Life."
Sham revivals do not effect the heart at all, and get the name no farther than a slip of paper.
True revivals bring the sanctifying baptism of the Holy Spirit to the hearts of believers, as well as the kiss of pardon upon the brow of the penitent.
Sham revivals are as afraid of sanctification as the devil is said to be of holy water.
True revivals are awake to the fact of formality and worldliness among professors, and seek the conversion of sinners who are in the Church, as earnestly as sinners without.
Sham revivals shut their eyes to the fact of unconverted professors, and take it for granted that all who belong to the churches are saved.
True revivals always bear some permanent fruit.
Sham revivals leave a church and community in a worse condition than before.
True revivals are a dread to the persistently wicked, but the joy of the children of God.
Sham revivals are insipid to the wicked, sickening to the saints, disgusting to God, and delightful to no one but the devil.
True revivals are like refreshing showers to the thirsty earth.
Sham revivals are like blasts from the desert, which blight and destroy.
May the true abound!
Revival Hints
The leaders of course must seek, claim, and retain the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The road to this indispensable qualification is through the valleys of Confession, Self-Abasement, Entire Consecration, and Complete Trust.
This alone "drew" surging throngs at Pentecost and will in many places. It is also proper and often needful to scatter the notices of the meeting, visit from house to house, call at shops and other places where men are, put up big posters, announce startling themes, hold street meetings, or do any other rightful thing to get the attention of the people from things ordinary to the meetings and things eternal.
Then the truth must be placed before them and they be vehemently urged to embrace it at once.
Sermons must be fervent and to the point.
If saved people are in the congregation their testimony is a power which often can be utilized.
No expedient for committing people has been more highly honored of God than the altar service.
A band of workers should be organized to press penitents to the altar in the after meeting.
It is usually wise at the close of a preaching to permit all to go who are not in earnest about the salvation of themselves or others.
The aisles should be kept open, even if the people have to go away.
Let the Holy Spirit notify penitents when they are converted.
Praise God whenever there is a conversion.
Seek out those under conviction, after the service is over, and if possible persuade them to yield.
Give God all the glory.
A Revival Spirit And A Worldly Spirit Either will show itself.
The first by a desire to save men.
The second by indifference.
The first by self-denial.
The second by self-indulgence.
The first by a love for spiritual things.
The second by an aversion to them.
The first will find its joy in God's service.
The second, in the world's amusements.
The first will seek to rescue men.
The second, to amuse them.
The first will devote its energies to edify.
The second, to entertain.
The first is ambitious to please God.
The second, man.
The first aims to be like Jesus.
The second, like "other folks."
The first loves holiness.
The second hates it.
The first will buoy up to heaven.
The second will sink down to hell.
Reader, which have you?
The Revival Needed
If God should let a red-hot, sanctified, John Brown sort of a man, burst upon society, — a man that would strike as much terror to the dead pulpits of the Church as the dens of iniquity, — it would be the thing we need ... Many of these revivalists held the ruinous error, that depravity is never extirpated from the soul, but only covered up by the imputed robe of Christ's personal holiness. That doctrine has no earthquake power in it. It is a poetical device of the devil: for he loves to be covered over with the borrowed costume of Christ, provided he can retain a niche in the heart. Oh, no! In the revival I mean, the carnal mind is never repressed under borrowed garments, but torn out root and branch; a revival in which no one ever rises for prayers, but where they fall and pray for themselves, and weep and mourn, and make the doctor think they are insane; a revival that will make preachers forget their manuscripts, and burst out and weep in the pulpit; a cyclone of mysterious omnipresence that, when it strikes a church or community, will make people awfully mad or awfully happy.
I declare in the presence of God and his hosts, I am ready for just such a moral scene. Nothing is so alarming as the utter absence of alarm in the churches Nothing is so dreadfully terrific to my mind as that sinners have no terror. Oh, that God would so baptize with fire a thousand people as to render them incomprehensible amazements of power! Oh, for a few men so dead to all things but God, and so filled with Him as to make them more than a match for the rest of mankind! O Thou triune God of Sinai, Calvary, and Pentecost! art thou not now nursing, under the horizon, the lightning and thunder and rain of an amazing holiness revival? Lord, let it come! Let it strike our nation! Though it may blow the steeples of our abominable church pride in the dust; though it may thrust our philanthropic fairs and festivals in the gutter; blow the French music out of our choirs and the feathers out of our bonnets; though it should confound all the wise ones, and be understood by no one but Thy divine self, let it come!
— Rev. G. D. Watson —
The Coming Revival
As the lightning falls from above when certain atmospheric conditions are met, so the revival will come when the atmosphere of the Church shall be sufficiently charged with hope and faith and prayer.
It will melt the ice of formality and worldliness in which multitudes have frozen to death, and will form Mississippies of saving grace, upon which all the world may float out into the gulf of full, free, and eternal salvation.
It will make saints feel a joy a million times deeper than soldiers for their country, or college boys over pugilistic victories.
It will cremate tobacco, snuff, opium, and their kindred, liberate their victims, and cleanse them from filth without and from sin within.
It will transform hovels into Christian homes. It will make hypocrites bowl with rage and saints sing with rapture.
Its mighty spiritual electric currents will throw such vivid light on Error that, frightened at her own hideousness, she will "writhe in pain, and die amid her worshipers;" will so "shock" the devotees of fashion, folly, and formality that they will faint for very fear. In characters of flame, a million times more vivid than those which frenzied voluptuous Belshazzar, it will blazen words of doom upon ball-rooms; brothels; saloons; legislative halls that license them; nunneries; so-called churches, that have become training schools for the theater; and all other haunts where sin, masked or otherwise, seeks to hide his grimy head. It will shake all earth with a mighty moral earthquake that will topple, as though they were children's play-houses, principalities, powers, kingdoms, empires, republics, and ecclesiastical systems moss-covered with decay of ages.
Like a stupendous avalanche it will first warn, then startle, then appall, and then "grind to powder,
"the great men and the mighty men and the chief captains," who have oppressed the poor, withstood the truth, and serving self instead of God have persisted in their wrong.
Like a black storm-cloud, with gleeful fury its lightnings will leap upon false professors and professed ministers of Christ whose lives and lips belie the profession which they make, — the
"generation of vipers" of this nineteenth century, who by crying, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," and by either silence or words of cheer have said amen to that which God condemns. Like Jesus in the temple, in spite of plea of proud Pharisee or cowardly priest, its "whip of small cords"
will snap amid the frolics, the feastings, and the stage performances of modern churchly worldlings.
Like a mighty tidal wave its flood will sweep through the souls of men, cleansing from inborn depravity, filling with perfect love, and perfecting them in that holiness without which none can see the Lord.
It will so completely annihilate pride within the human heart that all her signboards which she hangs out on the bodies of those in whom she dwells will drop off like dead leaves when the buds burst in spring-time.
Like the shower, it will refresh and revive all that is of God, and leave the spiritual atmosphere pure and sweet.
Like the sun, it will banish darkness, illuminate the whole earth, and fill it with the light of the knowledge and glory of God.
Brother, do you work, watch, pray, and look for such a revival as this? As true as God has spoken, its coming! COMING! COMING!
Variance Vanishes — Where true revival fires are burning, petty strifes, envies, and jealousies vanish. Let these fires be kindled all over this land, and the Devil of Discord would be cast out, and the Angel of Peace would wave her white banner over every inch of the soil of the world's great republic. — Nashville Christian Advocate.
Revivals A Cure For Crime. — In many instances in these revivals, restitution sometimes to the amount of many thousand dollars was made by those whose consciences troubled them, either because they had obtained the money directly by fraud or by some selfish overreaching in their business interests. — C. G. Finney
Sure Cure For False "Isms." — I have learned again and again, that a man needs only to be thoroughly convinced of sin by the Holy Ghost, to give up at once and forever, and gladly give up, Universalism and Unitarianism. — C. G. Finney.
A New Start. — The "revival" that would be hurt by a sermon on any fundamental doctrine of the Bible, or by a collection for any worthy object, needs to take a new start on a better line. — Nashville Christian Advocate.
Religious Revivals are the life of the world. As Nature would die with continued winter, so the world would utterly perish in wickedness if God did not display His Saving power. — Rev. James H. Potts
Revivals An Antidote For Mormonism. — The Methodist revival now in progress in Salt Lake City is capturing many Mormon converts from Scandinavia who have recently entered Utah. — Selected.
Formality is spiritual ice; a revival will melt it. Worldliness is spiritual treason; a revival will banish it.
All Live Christians Desire Revivals, And All Dead Christians Need Them. — Rev. James H. Potts
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REVIVAL KINDLINGS By
Martin Wells Knapp Section 4
REVIVAL PREPARATION
"Tarry ye ... until ye be endued with power from on high."
— Jesus — Begin At Home
Wise are they who heed the truth found in the following extract from an old revival tract
"Let us seek a revival in our own hearts first. It is only hypocrisy to talk about the low state of religion among our neighbors, unless we begin at home. But when we have humbled ourselves before God, and besought Him to revive His work within us, we may then look out upon the Church and world around us, and plead for them. Pray for your ministers; pray for your fellow Christians;
pray for the world, perishing in its sins. 'O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.'"
Revival Dynamite
"Ye shall receive power." This word "power" is a translation of the same word from which the expressive one "dynamite" is derived. The kingdom of God shall come in power, — Dynamite. The power dynamite of the Lord was present. It is in the spiritual world what dynamite is in the material world. The truth may be preached, the word declared, the Bible read, and personal work performed;
but if this power does not descend, nor accompany the work, nor touch the people, the arm of salvation is shortened. This power is repeatedly promised. Its importance is emphasized.
It is the one necessary gift, which must precede any extensive work of grace. — Henry W. Bennett Conditions Of Revival Success
Revival methods will vary with different times, places, and people; but the conditions, like those of life, growth, and fruitage, are always and everywhere the same. Pentecost is a graphic pen-picture of the meeting of these conditions and of the revival results which may follow.
1. They realized the imperative importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to fit them for the work.
2. They met to pray for this.
3. They claimed the fulfillment of the exceeding great and precious promises which assure of his coming.
4. They were inflexibly determined to prevail, and tarry until they did, were it ten days or longer.
5. They met the fixed conditions of self-abandonment and trust upon which the promise is conditioned.
6. They were of "one accord" as to the object, motive, and time of the answer of their prayer.
7. As is always the case when these conditions are met, victory was given.
If we meet like conditions, God will come to us, and that coming will be a revival; and whether the people repent and are converted as under Peter, or resent and persecute as under Stephen, victory will be the result.
Revival Inquiries
Have you received the gift of the Holy Spirit since you were converted?
In the early part of their experience Christ's "disciples" "were not of the world," had "left all" and followed Him, and their names were written in heaven; yet they had not received the "gift of the Holy Ghost" until the convention in the Pentecostal chamber. Cornelius was a devout, liberal, praying man in the early part of his religious experience; but it was only after deep heart-searchings and earnest seeking, and the instructions of Peter the holiness evangelist, that he knew what it was to be filled "with the Spirit."
These and other instances show,—
(1) That one may be a believer and not know what it is to have the baptism of sanctifying power.
(2) That it may be received instantaneously in answer to the prayer of faith.
(3) That it is a gift to be received, not a state to be "grown into" nor a possession to be purchased.
One might, with just as much sense, talk of growing into a Christmas present or New Year's gift as of thus possessing the gift of pardon or of the Holy Ghost.
Beloved, are you now in the conscious possession of this Pentecostal endowment, without which it is impossible to do the most effective revival work?
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
Spiritual Icebergs
A revival in which young converts are brought into the church without the church being revived, is like pouring hot water on an iceberg in the Frigid Zone. The water soon congeals and becomes a part of the iceberg. The scriptural way is to float the whole church out into the "gulf stream" of divine love and power, where, under the sunshine of revival grace, it will become so melted that it will assimilate the showers of young converts that seek union with it.
Relation Of The Holy Spirit To Revival Work
As great central suns are said to have thrown off other lesser worlds which revolve around them, so He is the source from whence all other true evangelist's power springs.
He has labored incessantly for centuries, and yet is as "mighty in labors" as in the beginning.
Although infinite in wisdom and in love, yet wherever He labors He provokes the bitterest heart hostility both towards His methods and Himself. When His councils are followed, souls are saved;
otherwise His work is an apparent failure.
He may be "vexed," and then becomes "an enemy" whose might is awful. He knows all that is in man, and often brings to light the "hidden things of the heart" with Judgment Day vividness.
He is a terror to worldlings and formalists and hypocrites, and they treat Him just as they did Jesus when He was on earth.
He is the only person in the universe who has the authority to tell people when their sins are forgiven, and He always does this when they are and can make the subject feel as certain of it as of existence. He has no fixed salary, and will go just as quickly to a poor charge as to a rich, and pleads with a single individual as readily as with a multitude.
He makes people weep for grief and then shout and laugh for joy.
People have fallen like dead men under His power, and some of His meetings have been so noisy that it was reported that His converts were "drunk with new wine." The worth of His work, however, is not to be measured by outward demonstrations so much as by the faith, hope, love, patience, gentleness, liberality, self-denial, and boldness that possess all who receive Him.
Cowardice, fear, unbelief, pride, envy, revenge, and their kindred hate him with a bitterness born of the pit, and He has been known to drive them all from a soul in an instant. He always meets his engagements on time to a second, and would be glad to enter on an aggressive campaign at once with every person and church in the land.
All desiring His presence will address the Father in the name of Jesus. His name is the Holy Spirit.
Try Holiness
A minister had gone to a new circuit, where he expected to find marked religious earnestness; but to his great disappointment, he was met by apathy and formality. The minister's heart became sad, having made many ineffectual efforts to rouse the church. In a most discouraged state of mind he wrote to a friend, saying, "I have tried nearly everything to bring about a better state of things, and am now about at my wits' end. Last night, however, while pondering over the state of matters, it came to my mind as if a voice spoke to me, 'Try holiness; get the people nearer to God, and lead them to seek a higher Christian life.'" When we have witnessed the many ineffectual methods employed to increase the spiritual interest of the church, such as lectures, concerts, sociables, literary entertainments, etc., and all the while the church growing sicker, we have felt like exclaiming in thunder tones, "Try holiness! Appoint a Pentecost, and see what that will do. Tarry in some chamber until you are all filled with the Holy Ghost. That will give power and fire, and saved people will be added to the church. Try holiness!" — Selected
The Natural Order
For the Christian worker, peace, work, power, the only possible natural order.
The great work must not be done in the energy of the flesh.
1. Regeneration.
2. Sanctification.
3. Anointing. Must have them all, to do effective work for Christ.
Many Christians have never so much as heard of the Holy Ghost. Finney was so anointed by the Spirit that a glance brought a scoffing sinner to deep conviction of sin and led to his conversion.
Our Lord never preached until he was anointed by the Spirit. — Dr. Pierson Wesley Speaks
John Wesley said, "When Christian perfection is not strongly and explicitly preached, there is seldom any remarkable blessing from God, and little life in the members. Speak, and spare not. Let not regard for any man induce you to betray the truth of God. Till you press the believers to expect full salvation now, you must not look for any revival."
An Unfailing Revival Recipe
"The following, from the St. Louis Christian Advocate Is worthy of prayerful thought: "Much has been written and much said as to the methods and manners of a revival. That a thorough, profound, and wide. reaching revival is the remedy for our spiritual ills, we believe. A true revival is nothing more nor less than God coming to His Church to destroy the evil and to advance the good. Finances,
brotherhood, the grace of giving, of praying, and of living, are all established and mightily helped by the revival. Organization, fellowship, finance, singing, praying, orthodoxy, experience, discipline,
— everything was in fine order the day after the Pentecost revival. The presence and power of the Holy Ghost helps things at both ends mightily.
"The Christian Church needs that her machinery be well lubricated by the Holy Ghost. Nothing takes the starch and stiffness of the world out of the Church like a genuine revival.
"The Methodist 'Discipline' has one unfailing, universal receipt for this revival. We reproduce it to refresh and emphasize. It is the words of our vow when standing on the threshold of our full itinerant life. Before Bishop and conference we make this solemn asseveration in that solemn hour:—
"'Are you going on to perfection?' 'Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?' 'Are you groaning after it?'
"Hidden in these simple, familiar, incisive questions are the germs of every deep and genuine revival.
"If the preachers, bishops, connectional officers, presiding elders, preachers in charge, and editors would begin in dead earnest to meet the obligations of that itinerant vow, couched in the above words, and would reduce the history to a practice and the vow to an experience, such a revival as has never been known would visit and bless our Zion, and it would be so thoroughly impregnated by divine grace and power that it would stand in the ages to come as the bulwark of spiritual Protestantism in this country. May God hasten the day!"
Revival Preparation
The following burning words from the lips of Bishop Pierce will prove an inspiration to every true revival worker: "Now, then, I beseech the preachers to set their hearts upon this general baptism of the Spirit; arrange all your plans to this end. Adapt your sermons to this result. Enlist the laity in the activities of the Church. Give the women something to do for Christ and human salvation. Interest the children, and make the Sunday school auxiliary do the work. Do not be contented with good meetings and partial, scanty results. Aim at great things, ask for great things, expect great things.
You, my brethren, are doing good in many ways, but this is incidental, — a work by the way: your first chief business is the conversion of sinners.
"Let not the erection of churches divide your mind or delay your steps. The parsonage ought to be built, the collections all taken, every duty done; but do not stop short of a revival among your people. Let nothing satisfy you but success. 'Make full proof of your ministry.' 'Do the work of an evangelist.' Travail in soul for those for whom Christ died. Hunt the lost sheep. Persuade the prodigal to return to his Father's house. Pluck the brand from the burning. Be instant in season, out of season.
By all means save some.
"Let us all pray and work for another Pentecost. Oh that we too may count our converts by the thousand. Why not double our membership this year? Is this extravagant, presumptuous, absurd?
Why so? You never saw the like, never read of it, never heard of it? Well, well! is that the measure of your faith? Are your hopes bounded by what you have seen, read, and heard? Is there nothing better? Are we to live forever at this poor dying rate? God forbid! Is the Lord's ear heavy that He cannot hear? Is His hand shortened that He cannot save? His promise is given: let us prove Him. His power is sufficient: let us test it. Oh that Zion may travail. Let every member go into his chamber and pray three times a day, 'Thy kingdom come.' Let every preacher ascend Mount Carmel and pray till the little cloud rises from the sea, and then in the spirit of prophecy announce to the Church that he hears the sound of abundance of rain.
"'Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye become endued with power from on high.'"
When A Revival May Be Expected
1. When it is desired above everything else. 2. When the church unitedly prays and plans for it.
3. Where the church seeks to save the people, instead of entertaining and amusing them. 4. Where a number unitedly pray and exercise faith for it.
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Victory
I was converted at twenty and entered the ministry at the age of twenty-six. During all this time I was experimentally ignorant of the nature of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Surely it was offered in the Word, but I was ignorant of it. Reading books in my conference studies, Wesley on "Perfection" and Foster's "Christian Purity," and meeting some laymen full of the Holy Ghost, I was convinced of my need. My dearth of soul was further manifest in the little fruit borne for the Master. I searched the Scriptures as the only rule for faith and practice. I saw there the believer's inheritance or privilege, as well as necessity, the gift of the Holy Ghost. I saw it as the need of all Christians, and before obtaining it myself wrote a tract reminding Christians of their privileges. I sought earnestly, as I thought now. I presently found myself convicted on the line of giving. I had given five to twenty-five dollars per year to the Church. I now felt moved to give at least one-tenth of my income. I found rest on that line. I believe the withholding more than is meet is a great cause for the spiritual poverty of many. There was one appointment on my circuit which gave me much trouble. Dissensions abounded. Wrath was found where love should dwell. I would have left the place only for the duty of continuing the work. I still prayed for the baptism of power. I performed all the duties presented to me, but instead of getting more power I seemed to be losing what I had. At this place of trial, in the class meeting, God came in the person of the Holy Ghost, and filled my soul, until in my weakness I cried unto Him to stay His hand. I knew its meaning. A new life was begotten in my soul.
Then came days of rejoicing, with the "joy unspeakable and full of glory." In a short time the appointment I would have willingly left, and where I received the baptism, was the scene of a
glorious revival, and sixty were converted to God. — Rev. G. W. Thompson, Livingston Manor, N.
Y.
Sanctification Essential To Permanent Results
The necessity of the sanctification of the Church in order to insure permanent revival results is forcibly illustrated in the following extract from Finney's "Lectures to Professed Christians:" "When I was an evangelist I labored in a church that had enjoyed many revivals, and it was the easiest thing in the world to get the church to go out and bring in sinners to the meetings; and the impenitent would come in and hear, but there was no deep feeling and no faith in the church. The minister saw that this way of proceeding was ruining the church, and that each revival brought about in this manner made the converts more and more superficial; and unless we came to a stand, and got more sanctification in the church, we should defeat our object. We began to preach with that view, and the church members writhed under it. The preaching ran so directly across all their former notions about the way to promote religion, that some of them were quite angry. They would run about and talk, but would do nothing else. But after a terrible state of things, many of them broke down, and became as humble and teachable as little children."
Revival Recipe
The following plan, recommended by Mr. Moody, is doubtless one of the best. He says, "The best way is for the pastor to say he wants to see all who desire the work of revival. Don't let any one else come. Then get down on your knees and pour out your hearts, asking God to revive yourselves. Don't be in a hurry to pray for your friends; hold the people to themselves; you never see an anxious church without souls being saved. Don't wait for the whole church to move. Get two or three, and soon there will be six or seven. Form a praying band; pray for the work, and the blessing will come. That plan never failed yet."
A Sanctification That Led To Two Hundred Conversions
The following experience of Bro. T. L. Adams of St. Jo, Tex., illustrates the truth of the adage that one believer fully sanctified is equal to ten conversions.
"When a boy, preparing for the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, I went home from Vanderbilt University to spend vacation and recuperate purse and health. At Milan, Tenn., I met a presiding elder of the Memphis Conference, who needed a preacher to fill a vacancy made by an aged minister failing in health. After thinking and earnestly praying over the matter, I was satisfied God led me to go to this work. Arriving on the work (the Decaturville circuit) I found that though I had religion I was in no revival spirit. I betook myself to prayer. Went on through the first meeting of eight or ten days, with no satisfactory results. The second meeting came on by this time. I began to realize I, though from a university, was not in a condition to save sinners. I spent most all my time now, not required in the services, in earnest, agonizing prayer to God for help.
Going out one evening before sundown, I began in wrestling prayer, Jacob-like; and, a little after nine o'clock, while in deep agony, all alone out there in the woods, I felt that 'my prayer had prevailed,' and I had the victory. The next day, the fifth day of the unsuccessful meeting, I preached;
and though not conscious of extraordinary power, the power came, and amidst weeping penitents, rejoicing converts, and shouting Christians, sixteen made clear professions of faith in Christ, and in three days between forty and fifty were happily saved. And the power didn't stop there, but everywhere on my circuit that I preached, the power was present to save, till near two hundred souls were brought from darkness to light.
"'Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee' (Ps. 51:12, 13)."
How A Texas Preacher Received Power From On High
This summer, during a camp meeting near here, I was conversing with a young preacher who was hungering and thirsting for all the fullness of God. He had never heard the second blessing explained fully. All ministers with whom he had spoken on the subject gave him no encouragement, and he was almost in despair, and felt that he was not prepared for the work of the ministry without a second work. I gave him "Out of Egypt into Canaan" to read, when he returned home. When he finished reading it he made a complete surrender. He wrote me this week that the Lord was blessing his labors abundantly. He is only eighteen years of age. — Katie Lord, Cuero, Tex.
From The Plow To The Pulpit
When a pastor, I became acquainted with a man who was brightly converted in early life, and who for some time had felt that he was called to the ministry. He was reticent, and, feeling unqualified, had been hesitating about heeding the call.
During our meetings he came into a clear experience of justifying grace. He then sought and received the gift of sanctifying, fear-dispelling, joy-bringing power, without which none are qualified for soul-saving work.
What a change! From a "crooked path" professor, who had about all that he could do to breathe spiritually at all, he became first a faithful steward, then a zealous exhorter, then an efficient local preacher, and now he is a successful evangelistic pastor, yearly winning souls to Christ.
The turning point in his life as a soul-winner was when he fully consecrated all to Christ, and sought until he received the "gift of the Holy Ghost."
His life, like that of many others, is an illustration of the truth of that statement of an eminent divine, that, "One person fully sanctified is equal to ten conversions." The philosophy of the truth of this statement lies in the tact that one such person will, like his brother, bring about many more than ten conversions.
How A Scientist Became A Revivalist
Blessings you may count by the hundreds and thousands. Thank God, we have showers of blessings in this land of constant sunshine, but we have two grand crossings, the Red Sea and the
